The Rise and Fall of Lily and James Potter
by CatLikesTea
Summary: The story of Lily and James Potter, from the beginning until the very end/ Written for the Houses Competition/ ONE-SHOT


**House: Ravenclaw  
Category: Themed (Family)  
Prompts: Proposal, Refusing (I chose proposal for the seventh year challenge)  
Word count: 2494**

 **The Rise and Fall of Lily and James Potter**

James knew that she was the one the first time he laid eyes on her, that morning on the Hogwarts Express. That was also the day he decided he hated Severus Snape, the boy who looked at him with utter loathing, but who Lily looked at like he was everything good in the world.

He tried, of course to get her attention, smiling at her in the hallways, greeting her good morning in the great hall, as if the "Oh, bugger off Potter"s and the not so subtle glares she shot at him didn't hurt. It was only when Lily started refusing to acknowledge his presence that he started bothering Snape to get her attention. Snape already had a grudge against him, shooting jinxes in his direction and making snide remarks at him and his friends behind Lily's back, so when James started retaliating, he hadn't expected so many consequences.

He hadn't expected any consequences at all.

Lily stopped ignoring him, but started showing her resentment for him instead. She was always on the side of her Slytherin friend, even though it was usually Snape who started the fights and the Marauders who usually ended up in the hospital wing because of them. James loved Sirius, Remus and Peter like a family, so when Snape picked on them, he almost always got involved.

Unfortunately, he almost always got the blame, too.

When he was in fourth year, he started chasing after Lily. He remembered the first time he did - he was so nervous, and his unusual quietness drew suspicious looks from his friends.

"What are you up to Potter?" Lily said haughtily as he approached her. "I hope it's not another stupid prank of yours."

James had remained quiet, wondering how he should ask her. He wasn't sure Lily would take kindly to the question, but there was no going back now.

"Well Potter? Spit it out!"

"Go out with me Evans?"

There was silence from the Gryffindor table. Lily was gaping at him.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard. Will you go out with me?"

Another silence, then-

A loud smack was heard as Lily slapped James across the face. "You've got some nerve, Potter," she hissed, her face going as red as her flaming hair. "Is this some kind of a joke? You bully Severus daily, you and your little gang, you have no respect for anyone including me, you're an arrogant, selfish toerag and you think, after all you've done, I'd go out with you? In your dreams, Potter."

The words, he'd decided, hurt more than any physical harm Lily could give him.

He'd laughed it off, of course he had, each time he tried pretending the rejection hurt less than the last one.

He tried again.

And again.

Then came a terrible point in the middle of his fifth year, when James realized he was kidding himself. Somewhere deep inside him, he knew it was foolish to hold onto the hope that Lily would someday say yes. And that was the point where James was no-longer pretending to hide his hurt at the rejections.

That was the point where the hurt slowly began to diminish.

James decided to get over Lily Evans at the end of his fifth year, and half-way into his sixth year, he began dating another girl. He stopped hexing Snape, played fewer pranks on people and focused on his studies.

He cut Lily out of his life completely, which hurt at first, of course it did, but he got used to it. He saw her paying more attention to him, saw her growing frustrated as he appeared to have no reason for the sudden lack of interest, but he kept up the act, continued to not care.

If Lily wanted him out her life (and she had made it quite clear that she did), so be it.

His sudden change of behaviour got the notice of not only Lily, but the Hogwarts professors, and in his seventh year he was made Head Boy.

Lily was made Head Girl.

It took time, and a lot of heartache on James' part, but eventually the two became friends. Eventually, James accepted that that was as good as it was going to get, and became content with being Lily's friend. His relationship with Ella Summers from Ravenclaw was no longer just a coping mechanism for losing Lily, but he truly believed that one day he could love her almost as he loved the red-headed Gryffindor.

Almost.

But then something changed. Slowly, but surely, James and Lily had got closer to each other, closer in a way that had James start wondering whether he could still hope for a relationship with her. Ella broke up with him because the two were too close, but James found himself uncaring. Halfway through the school year, James asked Lily out for what he vowed would be the last time.

Lily said no.

It had broken James in a way none of the other rejections had. He had built up his expectations in true hope and belief that Lily really cared about him, but she shut him down again.

That was when James Potter gave up.

.

That was also when Lily Evans changed her mind. She had rejected James for so many years, so when feelings for him began to appear, she shut them out, afraid of what they could mean.

There was only one word for it: Denial.

So when James Potter asked her out for the first time in two years, Lily said no.

She ignored the fact he had changed, ignored the fact he stood up for her, the fact they were friends, the fact she felt something for him. She was just too scared to allow herself to open up.

As soon as the words came out her mouth, she wished she could take them back. As James's face began to crumble, so did Lily's world. 'I am so sorry,' she wanted to scream. 'Give me another chance.'

But as James turned on his heel and fled the common room, Lily realized something. He had given her all the chances in the world and this one was going to be the last.

James Potter had given up on her.

'I can always say yes next time,' she told herself, though she knew deep down, there wasn't going to be a next time.

She was right. If she truly wanted James Potter, she was going to have to go after him herself.

She found him after quidditch practice, in the boys changing room. She had secretly watched the whole thing, because although she didn't care much for the sport, watching James play it entranced her.

He jumped as she sat down beside him, for he had not seen her come in.

"Evening Evans," he had said, his tone dull. "What are you doing in here?"

Lily felt suddenly uncomfortable. What if James had already changed his mind about her?

"I was watching you play," she changed the subject abruptly, surprising both herself and James. "You're really good, you know."

James raised an eyebrow in surprise, but said nothing.

"Look, I'm- well, the thing is…" She took a deep breath. Oh, bugger it.

"James, the thing is from the moment I met you, I've had this weird sort of grudge against you. I guess I never really had any reason to hate you, but just the fact that Severus didn't like you somehow made me think it was okay to dislike you as well. You tried to be nice to me but I was just an absolute arsehole back."

James made a noise as if to protest, but Lily held up a hand to silence him. "Don't argue, you know it's true. You may have been horrible to Severus, but let's face it, he was worse to you. Then you started asking me out. I couldn't understand it. I thought we'd always had this kind of mutual hatred between us so I shut you down, assuming it was some kind of sick idea of a joke. You tried again and again, and I guess it kind of did become a joke, what with the consistency and the stupid ways you did it."

Lily sighed, wistfully. "When fifth year started, I knew you stopped taking it seriously. It became more like a show for attention rather than you genuinely liking me. Then, at the end of our fifth year, you just stopped. Part of me was relieved," she chuckled slightly, "But I think part of me missed the attention. It's not every day someone goes from giving you their full love and attention to completely ignoring you."

Lily stared up at James, keeping her eyes locked in his gaze. "You changed in sixth year," she said. "You were less immature, less horrible to other people, less arrogant. I think it was the start of seventh year when I realized I liked you. I was in horrible denial though, and absolutely refused to acknowledge the fact I had developed feelings for the person I had spent the last few years rejecting. When you asked me out, I wanted so badly to say yes, but I couldn't do it, couldn't admit I had been wrong, which I guess makes me horrifically stubborn and selfish."

Lily looked back down at her hands, which somewhere through her speech had started holding James'.

"So, James Potter, will you go out with me?"

She looked up then, and was surprised to find tears in his eyes. She was even more shocked to find tears in her own and wiped at them furiously, before looking back up at him. James smiled at her, gently.

"Yes," said he, closing his eyes. "A million times yes."

They kissed. It was perfect.

.

He had taken her to the top of the hill near Godric's Hollow. It was a cold November, and it had started snowing softly as they walked up the grassy slope. Lily had complained about the cold but James had seemed anxious to reach the top and wrapped his own jacket around her to keep her warm. When they had reached the top, James laid down a blanket and the two of them lay there, looking up at the stars. Well, Lily had been looking at the stars, James was just staring at her in awe, admiring her beauty.

'How did I get so lucky?' He thought, but didn't realize he was saying it out loud. That was the night Lily told James she loved him.

He proposed to her a week later, when the snow was ankle-high and the stars were out once again. They were walking towards the archway in front of the church, when James grabbed her hands, stopping her.

"What is it?" She had said, distractedly, for her focus was on the glowing stained-glass windows which seemed to light the up the snow with all sorts of pretty colours. He turned her towards him, and before she could question him again, sunk down on one knee, his hand reaching into his pocket. Lily gasped as he pulled out a small black box and opened it gently. Sitting inside on a bed of crushed velvet, was the most beautiful diamond ring Lily thought she'd ever seen.

"Lily Evans, will you marry me?"

Lily threw her arms around him and repeated his words from their seventh year.

"Yes, a million times yes!"

The half-moon shone down on them, lighting up James' smile, and Lily's tears of joy.

.

The marriage took place in the very same church James had proposed outside of. As James stood at the altar with Sirius by his side, Lily was waiting nervously outside, twirling her hair around her finger and pulling at her uncomfortable dress."

"Lily, for the last time, stop fiddling with your hair!" Marlene fussed, whipping out a can of hairspray and spraying the top of Lily's bun excessively. "Now, are you ready?"

"I- I think- Yes, Marlene, I'm ready."

As she walked down the aisle, James knew he'd never seen anyone so beautiful as Lily Evans.

.

When Lily found out she was pregnant, the couple were overjoyed that they were finally going to be a proper family. Lily carried her pocket book of baby names everywhere, and would occasionally spring up on James in the most unexpected moment, yelling things like, 'Ooh, how about Esther for a girl?' or 'No, I've decided- Thomas if they're a boy, and Claire if they're girl.'

After their baby was born (Sirius had bet five galleons it would be a boy and Remus thought it would be a girl- for once Sirius was right), Lily decided on the name Harry.

"Look James! Doesn't he look like a Harry?"

James thought the baby didn't look like anything - it was only a baby after all. The only thing that really stood out about baby Harry was his piercing emerald eyes, almost identical to Lily's. The rest of his son, James decided, looked like rather like him.

"I think he looks more like a me," he had said, truthfully. "Are you sure we shouldn't call him James junior?"

This earned him a half- hearted punch on the arm from Lily. "Harry it is then."

Harry's first Christmas was wonderful. Lily had always loved celebrating the occasion with her family, and getting to celebrate with Harry, James and the Marauders - her new family, was more than she could have ever wished for. Lily adored the joy on his face as Harry squealed with delight at the brightly coloured Christmas tree and seemed more content with ripping up the the paper cracker hats than playing with any of his presents.

When Harry turned one, James started to see that his son genuinely did look like him - well, his one year old self anyway. Harry's birthday was mainly celebrated by the Marauders plus Lily looking through James' old baby pictures, which Sirius had somehow managed to find, and Remus trying to make sure Harry didn't destroy any furniture with his new toy broomstick.

.

Lily didn't believe in celebrating Halloween, and anyway, it was a Muggle holiday which James didn't really understand. Besides, since the fidelius charm had been placed around their house, it would be foolish to break the safety of its wards. That's why the Potter family spent Halloween inside, James entertaining Harry with bubbles coming out the end of his wand, Lily on the sofa smiling at the scene in front of her.

Then there was a crash as the front door was blown open, and James jumped up. He knew who was here and concerns about his wife and child clouded his mind.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off —"

James was hit with a flash of green light and he knew no more.


End file.
